Short Film Production Proposal.

Proposal for short film production ‘upside down’

The purpose of my short fiction film production which is titled ‘upside down’ is a collaborative project that utilizes the incorporation of musical files with moving images. I have contacted Graham Woolley a multi-instrumentalist who has certified that I can use his music file ‘when the curtain falls’ to accompany my screenplay. My project seeks to explore the development of short film production and explores the theme of a character that is lost and alienated, searching for meaning and attempting to understand the human condition. ‘Upside down’ depicts the art of a character that seeks self-awakening and is beginning to find meaning in his existence. The leading protagonist of my short film production is a character called Graham; the film is a loosely based biography of Graham Woolley.

Length of work, format.

The length of ‘upside down’ short film production will follow the length of Graham Woolley’s musical track ‘when the curtain falls’. The length that has been set are 5-6 minutes and the format will be linear in chronological order filmed using either a canon 550D or Fujifilm 500.

Who is the intended audience?

The intended audience for ‘upside down’ film production is a wide demographic of ages. I have created a questionnaire to collate information on the audiences most likely to listen to the style of music which Graham Woolley produces which is a mixture of folk, jazz, be-bop and fusion. My targeted audience is the 16-25 categories as the musical theme contains dark subject matter with the theme of abortion which will particularly affect younger girls.

Goal or intended purpose(s) of the film

My intended aim for ‘upside down’ short film production is to make people more aware of how damaging abortion is too many lives but also the theme of the film is loneliness and how we must learn to love ourselves even in the darkest of moments.

Has any media work already been produced on this subject?  If so, what is new, different, interesting, engaging about your approach?

This is an original screenplay which I have devised, I have however taken inspiration from musical artists such as Ed Sheeran and Ben Howard as their musical themes focus on love, despair and isolation which is very similar to the themes of ‘when the curtain falls’. The new and engaging aspect of my short film production ‘upside down’ is that the film focuses on many different themes such as the cries of isolation, the highs of love and companionship and the feeling of loss of self-realization.

Style (Any key stylistic elements in writing, shooting, audio, editing, etc.)

The key stylistic elements of my short film production ‘upside down’ will be the use of handheld camera styles, the use of audio soundtrack to accompany the moving image and it will be shot on location. The writing process included me constructing my screenplay, consent forms, risk assessment forms and questionnaires.

What about the soundtrack? (Any music, narration, etc.—If so, who? what?)

The use of soundtrack will be from Graham Woolley with the musical file ‘when the curtains falls’ which Graham has approved of my usage and has agreed to the terms and conditions of the consent form. The film will have a voiceover at the beginning of me introducing the film name.

Who is working on the project? And what similar projects have they done in the past?

The project teams consists of me (Jake Regan director, editor, preproduction artist), Graham Woolley (musician, actor) and Kathryn Pogue (production consultant)

Graham Woolley has previously worked on a short film production in the process of designing and building ukuleles and is a regular session musician who performs with multi instruments.

Kathryn Pogue is a Higher National Diploma student with years of camera experience and has worked on short films such as 5x5 late night train and ode to life and death.

The reason why I chose Graham was due to his commitment to the task and his fantastic musical ability, I chose Kathryn due to her high level of team management and camera ability and high levels of experience in pre and post production work.

How will this work be distributed? (Which markets, any distributor on board already?)

‘Upside down’ short film production will be distributed to a short film festival within the United Kingdom; the choice of the film festival is the Bristol film festival or Manchester film festival.

Project history or current status of project.

Who, what, where, when, how, why?

The project was created and constructed during a meeting I had with Kathryn Pogue in which she recommended me to Graham Woolley as a musical artist. I began to contact Graham via social networking sites as I became fascinated by his music and passion for musical styles. After meeting Graham we began to chat about the possibility of me acquiring one of his songs for my short film production and then I began crafting a screenplay based around my own themes and of ‘when the curtain falls’. The location which we first met was at Bradford college my place of current education and then the following meetings were at Grahams house in Halifax in which we discussed consent forms and risk assessments. The reason we wanted to discuss consent forms was to ensure that the format was correct for the consent forms and this was in an acceptable format for my portfolio.

Depending on the situation, you may choose to include the following:

How will the project be funded?  An outline production schedule.

‘Upside down’ short film production will be funded by me (Jake Regan), locations will be provided by Graham Woolley and camera will either be provided by me with my Fujifilm or Kathryn Pogue with her 550D. The editing facilities are provided by Bradford College using the adobe premiere pro service and the distribution will be uploaded free to sites such as you tube, Facebook and will also be distributed to a film festival.